Conversations

As I mentioned earlier, both SMS and IMs are consolidated in the 'conversation' application, similar to what we've seen on WebOS. There's threading support and emoticons inside, and remaining characters shown at the bottom.

Unfortunately, what's lacking is MMS - you'll have to find another application in the marketplace called fMMS to make that happen. As it ships though, you don't get any notice that you're missing MMSes - they just don't happen.

Otherwise, conversations works very well and is everything one would expect from a modern smartphone in the way of an SMS application.

Email Client and Account Types

Email accounts are configured through the account setup wizard, which supports the full suite of email protocols, including POP/IMAP and Microsoft Exchange. I had a heck of a time getting Google Sync working on the N900, however, and never succeeded in making it work fully. I consulted a bunch of different people online, and the consensus was that things had changed in the Exchange support Google was using and the Exchange client for Maemo, and that only contacts and calendars would sync to the N900 - email would continually fail and refuse to sync. While that's not the end of the world, it's one of those YMMV situations if you rely on Google Sync for push email and seamless contact and calendar synchronization across a bunch of platforms. I ended up using IMAP for my google apps email account, which works, but makes me feel like I'm living 2008 all over again.

 
Like the iOS and newer smartphone clients, the N900 email client doesn't support IMAP rest - and thus IMAP push - for power saving reasons.

The other push email option is Nokia Messaging, which functions as a consolidation point and enables you to check up to 10 email accounts at once - for free. Essentially, Nokia takes a RIM-like support by handling the power-hungry IMAP rest functions at their own datacenter, and pushes out notifications and emails to you as they arrive. I didn't test this, but understand that it's widely favored among Nokia diehards.

If you're using Google Sync - this screen will never finish. Ever.

Other than that, the email client is straightforward. There's support for formatting messages in full HTML/Rich Text, and attachment viewing including PDFs, images, and office documents through the included and multiplatform Documents To Go suite.

Maemo: Seamless Skype Integration Maemo: Maps and Everything Else
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  • akse - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link

    I've got my N900 clocked to use 250Mhz idle and 805Mhz stress clocks and it fastens everything by huge amount. 600Mhz is sometimes a bit slow and if you up it a little bit, everything starts to get smoother..

    The custom kernel is using lower voltages but higher clocks than nokia stock kernel.. which is why 805mhz drains just about the same amount of power than 600mhz with stock kernel.

    I just love the fact that you can do that kind of things on this phone..

    One guy was asking how to backup sms messages.. well there wasn't any app for it so you could just run a command with sqlite in Xterm to search through the database for all sms's and forward the results with > to a text file :)
  • Exodite - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link

    That's a truly epic article, the in-depth look at both the hard- and software side of things is far and above what I'm used to reading regarding smartphone reviews. Many thanks for that!

    Looking forward to similar articles in the future.
  • medi01 - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link

    Epic, right, and you don't care that Apple's device is visible where it has advantage but is not shown, where it doesn't. Like on contrast comparison images.

    Misterious.
  • Exodite - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link

    No, can't say I mind that at all really.

    Then again I'm not in the market for an iPhone anyway.
  • Brian Klug - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link

    I actually completely spaced on that one - I probably had a 3GS in my pocket when I took those photos.

    There's no conspiracy - I just thought that the Incredible's AMOLED display would make an interesting comparison with the Motorola Droid's LCD, and the N900's resistive layer would mix things up a bit.

    The iPhone screen really shows its age in the numbers from the bench though. It leaks light pretty badly and obviously the lower PPI is... well... bad.

    Cheers,
    Brian
  • Rayb - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link

    Nokia has been making devices that work without much hoopla for a long time. It is not for everyone but it beats the available iPhone in more useful ways than is possible.
  • Helmore - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link

    The Adrena 200 is based on the AMD Z430 GPU. A Z340 does not even exist AFAIK.
    I know, I'm nitpicking here, but I just thought I had to mention it.

    The Adreno 200 runs at a frequency of 133 MHz, giving it a theoretical performance of 133 MPixels/s of fill rate and 22 Million Triangle/s. The Adreno 205 is the same core but running at 200 MHz and is what will be used in the MSM7X30 and QSD8X50A (45 nm version of the current Snapdragon chip with some small tweaks). The SGX530 used in the Droid (OMAP3430) runs at around 100 MHz, which should give it a theoretical fill rate of 250 MPixels/s and a 7 million Triangles/s. On the OMAP3630 the SGX530 will run at 200 MHz AFAIK. That's all theoretical performance, as we all know they're only part of the story. Just take a look at the GTX480 and the Radeon 5870 and you'll know that theoretical performance doesn't get you very far.
  • fabarati - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link

    1) there was a mistake on the N900 hardware page: it's a 3.5 mm jack, not a 1.8 mm. You probably mixed it up with 1/8"

    2) The N900 can do Video calling over 3G, like most 3G phones in Europe have done since 2003. It works ok, but it's hella expensive, so no one does it more than once or twice.
  • Brian Klug - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link

    Fixed! Thanks!

    -Brian
  • wobblysausage - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link

    Lies! It cannot make a 3g video call.

    It can make a skype video call (or a google chat video call) over a 3g data connection but this is not the same thing. Not nearly.

    I've had my N900 since November and this is the 1 thing I really miss.

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